I am about 75 minutes of playtime in, and am so far having a rather glorious time.
You play an unnamed journalist, sent to interview French scientist and explorer Alexandre Valembois about his career. Living as a recluse in a Brittany lighthouse for more than 50 years, your letter of instruction from the commissioning magazine states that despite his unsavoury nature, he remains the only expert on the little-known Amerzone.
The source of that unsavouriness you can discover for yourself.
I played the original but remember only a bit about its story. I do remember fantastical white birds and all sorts of creatures, and a small critter on the path to the lighthouse is a promise perhaps of things to come.
That it looks sumptuous will only help.
It's point and click, with supplementary keyboard commands, and utilises point to point movement to get around. At each new point you can look completely around and explore the location in detail. The Alt key will highlight hotspots, and there can be quite a few. Cursers will indicate what might be done there (look, take etc) and at times you will need to mimic actions with the mouse (pull, slide, turn etc.,) to engage.
You will be exposed to quite a bit of information and will take much of it with you. I have used some of it to unearth a way forward and explored to find items that have helped in other places. To date it hasn't been difficult, but if you get stuck a hint system can assist. In that regard, at the start of the game you choose either traveler or adventurer mode, the latter offering a more challenging experience, with fewer helpful documents and less precise hints. For an even greater challenge, you can also choose to turn off hints altogether.
Pop-up tutorials occur at certain points early on, which will help settle into all the different aspects of the game. There is a lot of material that gets added to your inventory, including information about subsidiary investigations you can engage in, which don't need to be completed but which the game says "will enable you to discover additional content and delve into the secondary elements of the story." It feels a little overwhelming at first, but spend some time playing in the journal (and the rest of the inventory fields) and it will feel more comfortable.
You transition between points with a very realistic amble, or double click to skip. I just found a map that tells me I can now fast travel around the lighthouse.
Everything is voiced, and it sounds as good as it looks, and music is used to heighten elements not just to underpin everything. It autosaves exclusively, but will tell you how long it's been since a save if you decide to exit.
I haven't yet left the lighthouse, but I have plenty of incentive to do so. The means beckon, once I sort it all out.
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